(15 Dec 2024, 12:43 pm)Storx wrote Personally I'd rather go down the get arid of the operator problem instead and acknowledge buses won't be profitable.
I don't think fares are the main problem anyway personally, it's the fact the buses don't go where people want, are too infrequent, run the same route as a car so have no time benefits and if you live in certain areas don't bother turning up at all.
The fares is all just a sticking plaster imo to hide the real problems and if we spend some of the millions we spend upgrading roads which half the time do absolutely nothing when a North East council is involved on bus improvements then you wouldn't need them anyway.
and by bus improvements I don't mean bus stations in the place no-one wants to go to. I'm struggling to think of 1p of the BSIP being spent on some infrastructure that's actually useful, so far, which actually 'improves' buses as a whole.
The network is a huge issue and does need looking at. As part of the bigger picture.
I agree that the £2/£2.50 fares are a sticking plaster, but regardless of what is done with the network, fares also need to looked at.
A network which suits the modern traveller will only be sustainable (note I didn't mention profit) if the fares are affordable and vfm.
At the moment, we've got the opposite. And it's not working.
Look at both and it might just work.